A review by emeelee
Palimpsest: Documents from a Korean Adoption by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom

5.0

palimpsest (n): a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

An utterly gripping and very informative graphic memoir following Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom's search for her Korean birth parents. I grew up with my mother's unfailingly positive perspective of her own adoption, but as an adult I've learned that this is not the experience of most adoptees. Especially in the cases of interracial and international adoption, the practice is rife with racism, corruption, and lack of accountability. When Sjöblom began the search for her origins, she ran into brick wall after brick wall of murky bureaucracy and outright falsehoods from the very agencies that traded her and other children across borders. At every turn authorities seemed to prioritize maintenance of the prevailing adoption narrative (adoption is a blessing that gives children a better life, most parents who give their children up for adoption were unable/unwilling to care for them, its healthier for adoptees to forget their pasts and focus on their present) over the lived feelings of adoptees. For example, at one point Sjöblom is falsely told that her birth father is dead, which she later finds out was a lie fabricated to give her closure while hiding the fact that her father didn't want contact with her. But Sjöblom didn't want a pretty, simple story to tell herself--she wanted the truth, messy and nuanced and hurtful as it might be. She describes the sadness, anger, and frustration she felt at repeatedly being shut down when she asked questions about her past, being guilt-tripped into silence and expected to feel grateful for her circumstances. Palimpsest is full of documents, transcripts, and roundabout conversations that illustrate the hoops she had to go through just to get the simplest answers. While this might seem dry to some readers, I found Sjöblom's journey completely fascinating and I learned a lot about illegal adoption. I'm so glad to have read this.

TW: suicide, racism, gaslighting, child trafficking and kidnapping

⭐2022 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge⭐
49. Two books set in twin towns, aka "sister cities"(1)